Fas is a death receptor that belongs to the tumor necrosis factor receptor family and is expressed in various cell types, in particular, in lymphoid cells. A loss-of-function mutation in the Fas gene (lpr mutation) causes lymphadenopathy and splenomegaly, and accelerates autoimmune diseases in some strains of mice such as MRL. In this report, Fas cDNA driven by murine lck distal promoter was used to establish transgenic MRL-lpr mouse lines. The transgenic mice expressed functional Fas in mature… CONTINUE READING